Cape Town Air Access – powered by tourism and trade facilitation agency, Wesgro – has announced that, since its inception in 2015, a total of six African carriers have been added to Cape Town and the Western Cape's international network, connecting the province to 11 countries and 15 destinations across Africa.

This was highlighted during Africa Month (May) which focuses on the theme 'Accelerating the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA)' – a flagship project of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, aimed at creating a single African market for goods and services facilitated by free movement persons, capital, investment to deepen economic integration, promote and attain sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development, gender equality, industrialisation, agricultural development, food security, and structural transformation.

With this theme forming the focal point for proactive air route development in Cape Town and the Western Cape, the Cape Town Air Access initiative recently welcomed two new connections from Southern Africa into Cape Town, namely, Eswatini Air, which is scheduled to operate a direct flight between the Kingdom of Eswatini and Cape Town, with three frequencies per week, starting on June 2.

The second connection is Proflight Zambia, which commences its twice-weekly direct flight from Cape Town's largest unserved market in Southern Africa, Lusaka, Zambia, from July 1. 

Cape Town Air Access said the two-way number of passengers between Cape Town and the rest of Africa had grown by 80% year-on-year from 2021 to 2022, with Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana being the top three countries for two-way passengers in 2022, 

Lagos and Lusaka were the top two unserved African destinations. In addition, the top five carriers by seat capacity serving the African continent from Cape Town, were Ethiopian Airlines, Airlink, Kenya Airways, TAAG Angolan Airlines and RwandAir. 

Wesgro CEO and the Official Spokesperson for Cape Town Air Access, Wrenelle Stander, said: “Since 2015, the Cape Town Air Access initiative has produced excellent results when it comes to creating new routes and growing the number of people coming into the Western Cape.

“In doing so, the initiative has also played a significant role in developing trade relations and growing tourism in the destination as air connectivity is key to unlocking a country’s economic growth potential. With the addition of the direct Eswatini Air and Proflight Zambia services, the province will be connected to 15 destinations across sub-Saharan Africa by July 2023."

Western Cape Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities, Mireille Wenger, added: “More connections mean more tourists and more tourists mean more jobs for the residents of the Western Cape. The benefits these two new routes to Eswatini and Lusaka go beyond tourism and may open up more opportunities for trade and investments too.”

“These figures signify our destination strength and the success of the City’s mission to connect with more source markets across the continent through the Air Access initiative, clever campaigns, and city-to-city agreements. In fact, I have just returned from a trip to Nairobi, Kenya, where we signed a sister city agreement. My team and I will continue to work on such projects that ensure more travel and trade to Cape Town,” concluded Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth at the City of Cape Town, James Vos.